In light of the sexual abuse scandal involving Dr. Larry Nassar, two of USA Gymnastics’ largest corporate partners have not renewed their sponsorship deals with the sport’s national governing body. (Paul Sancya/The Associated Press)

For 19 months she was referred to only as “Athlete A” in USA Gymnastics, U.S. Olympic Committee, Michigan State documents and court filings, the first known gymnast to tell USA Gymnastics chief executive Steve Penny and other top officials that she was sexually abused by longtime U.S. Olympic and USA Gymnastics women’s national team physician Larry Nassar.

The young athlete’s revelation would trigger 15 months of behind the scenes damage control by USA Gymnastics that led to Nassar being allowed to retire from his Olympic and national team duties without revealing the real reason and in late 2016 a confidential $1.25 million out of court settlement with Olympic champion McKayla Maroney that may have violated a California law prohibiting secret settlements involving cases of potential sexual crimes. These happened while Nassar continued to allegedly molest at least 25, perhaps more than 100, unsuspecting young athletes at the Michigan State’s sports medicine clinic and a high profile Michigan gymnastics club, according to documents obtained by the Southern California News Group (SCNG) and interviews.

It would be weeks before Penny and USA Gymnastics would enlist the FBI and the U.S. Olympic Committee in trying to get a handle—and keep private—what would become perhaps the biggest sexual abuse scandal in American sports history, according to documents and interviews.

Through more than a year-and-a-half and hundreds of pages of documents detailing how Nassar’s abuse extended to as many as 140 victims from coast to coast and USA Gymnastics’ efforts to keep that abuse secret, she continued to be referred to as “Athlete A.”

No longer.

Maggie Nichols, a member of the 2015 World Championships gold medal-winning team and now an NCAA champion at Oklahoma, said in a statement to SCNG that she was sexually abused by Nassar during a U.S. national team camp in 2015 at the remote Texas ranch owned by U.S. national team directors Bela and Martha Karolyi, a U.S. Olympic Committee Training Site, and elsewhere.

“Up until now, I was identified as Athlete A by USA gymnastics, the US Olympic Committee and Michigan State University,” Nichols said. “I want everyone to know that he did not do this to Athlete A, he did it to Maggie Nichols.”

During 14 months between when Penny and Rhonda Faehn, US Gymnastics senior vice president, were first informed of Nichols’ allegations, and when charges of Nassar’s abuse first became public with the filing of civil lawsuits late in the summer of 2016, USA Gymnastics officials failed to contact officials at Michigan State, where Nassar continued to treat patients, or the Michigan State police, which conducted a criminal investigation of Nassar from early 2014 to July 2015. Michigan prosecutors didn’t decide until Dec. 15, 2015 not to prosecute Nassar on initial charges raised at the university.

“Who allows that?” said John Manly, an attorney for Nichols and dozens of other alleged victims of Nassar. “Who allows a physician to be put back in a clinic treating children while under investigation for sexually abusing children?”

While USA Gymnastics has said the Indianapolis-based governing body was “sorry that any athlete has been harmed during her or his gymnastics career,” USA Gymnastics attorneys filed a motion in December asking a U.S. District Court in Michigan to dismiss a series of civil lawsuits by Nichols and 92 former athletes. The motion to dismiss was based in part on USA Gymnastics’ insistence that it was not obligated to inform Michigan State of Nassar’s sexual abuse after USA Gymnastics officials learned of it in June 2015.

“From the onset the USOC and USA Gymnastics engaged in a systemic effort to keep our client and her parents quiet by making them believe going public would jeopardize Nassar being banned and criminally prosecuted when no such thing was happening,” Manly said. “(The USOC and USA Gymnastics) wanted to keep it secret because 1) they didn’t want explosive headlines going into the Rio Olympics and 2) they were trying to protect Los Angeles’ Olympic bid.

“The net result was dozens of young girls in Michigan were abused because USA Gymnastics wouldn’t call Michigan State.”

USA Gymnastics officials told the USOC they were following the proper procedures after learning of Nichols and Maroney’s abuse, a USOC official said.

“We were first made aware of the possibility that a USA Gymnastics physician had sexually abused USA Gymnastics athletes in the summer of 2015 when we were informed by USA Gymnastics,” USOC spokesperson Mark Jones said in a statement. “At that time USA Gymnastics indicated that they were in the process of contacting the appropriate law enforcement agencies. We are heartbroken that this abuse occurred, proud of the brave victims that have come forward and grateful that our criminal justice system has ensured that Nasser will never be able to harm another young woman. We are hopeful that with the U.S . Center for SafeSport’s continued education and prevention efforts, as well as their investigative and adjudicative authority, we will help ensure that tragedies like this will never happen again.”

Michigan State said it does not comment on matters under litigation.

Nichols, 20, is the latest former U.S. national team member to go public with their accounts of abuse at the hands of Nassar, who was recently sentenced to 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal child pornography charges. McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas, members of the Fierce Five, the record-setting 2012 Olympic champion team, recently confirmed they were routinely sexually assaulted by Nassar under the guise of medical treatment while competing for Team USA at major international competitions like the Olympic Games and World Championships.

Jamie Dantzscher, an Olympic bronze medalist, told SCNG last August that Nassar sexually assaulted her and some of her U.S. teammates on an almost daily basis at the 2000 Olympic Games.

“Recently, three of my friends and former National Team members who medaled at the 2012 Olympics have bravely stepped forward to proclaim they were sexually assaulted by USA Gymnastics Team Physician Dr. Larry Nassar,” Nichols said, referring to Maroney, Raisman and Douglas. “Today I join them.

“I am making the decision to tell my traumatic story and hope to join the forces with my friends and teammates to bring about true change.”

It was Nichols’ telling USA Gymnastics of her alleged abuse by Nassar that led to USA Gymnastics’ receiving confirmation from Maroney of her abuse and touched off a more than year-long effort by the organization to keep allegations of that abuse private.

Nichols, the 2015 World Championships floor exercise bronze medalist, alleges she was sexually abused by Nassar on more than one occasion. She shared details of Nassar’s treatements with Raisman at a U.S. national team training camp at the Karolyi ranch in 2015. Sarah Jantzi, Nichols’ club coach at Twin City Twisters in Minnesota, heard the conversation.

“People who watch gymnastics see young girls fly through the air and do all kinds of amazing things. You can imagine that having a good doctor is absolutely necessary to compete at the highest level,” Nichols said in her statement. “Dr. Larry Nassar was regarded throughout the sport as the very best by coaches and staff throughout the gymnastics community. He was a doctor at Michigan State University and the Olympic and Team USA doctor assigned to us by USA Gymnastics at the Olympic Training Center at the Karolyi Ranch. He was supposed to care for us and treat our injuries. The first time I met Dr. Nassar I was about 13 or 14 years old and receiving treatment for an elbow injury. At the time it seemed like he knew exactly what therapy was necessary for me to recover. Initially, he did nothing unusual.

“But when I was 15 I started to have back problems while at a National Team Camp at the Karolyi Ranch. This is when the changes in his medical treatments occurred. My back was really hurting me, I couldn’t even really bend down, and I remember he took me into the training room, closed the door and closed the blinds. At the time I thought this was kind of weird but figured it must be okay. I thought he probably didn’t want to distract the other girls and I trusted him.

“I trusted what he was doing at first, but then he started touching me in places I really didn’t think he should. He didn’t have gloves on and he didn’t tell me what he was doing. There was no one else in the room and I accepted what he was doing because I was told by adults that he was the best doctor and he could help relieve my pain. He did this ‘treatment’ on me, on numerous occasions.

“Not only was Larry Nassar my doctor, I thought he was my friend. He contacted me on Facebook complimenting me and telling me how beautiful I looked on numerous occasions. But I was only 15 and I just thought he was trying to be nice to me. Now I believe this was part of the grooming process I recently learned about.

“One day at practice, I was talking to my teammate, and brought up Dr. Nassar and his treatments. When I was talking to her, my coach overheard. I had never told my coach about these treatments. After hearing our conversation she asked me more questions about it and said it doesn’t seem right. I showed her the Facebook messages and told her about what Nassar was doing. My coach thought it was wrong, so she did the right thing and reported this abuse to the USA Gymnastics staff.”

Penny was informed by Faehn of the allegations on June 28 but it would be nearly two more weeks before Nichols was interviewed by USA Gymnastics and nearly three weeks before Raisman was interviewed. Raisman told USA Gymnastics investigators that Maroney had been sexually assaulted by Nassar.

Maroney confirmed the in a July 24 interview that she was sexually assaulted several times including at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo while Maroney was impaired by medication given to her by Nassar and during the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

“For me, the scariest night of my life happened when I was 15 years old. I had flown all day and night with the team to get to Tokyo,” Maroney said. “He’d given me a sleeping pill for the flight, and the next thing I know, I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a ‘treatment.’ I thought I was going to die that night.”

Attorneys involved in civil suits against Nassar, USA Gymnastics, the USOC and the Karolyis argue that the USA Gymnastics settlement with Maroney violates the California Code of Civil Procedure that states “a confidential settlement agreement is prohibited in any civil action the factual foundation for which establishes a cause of action for civil damages for an act that may be prosecuted as a felony sex offense.”

USA Gymnastics has declined to comment as to any settlements with athletes, but has denied that it would violate the law.

USA Gymnastics contacted the FBI a few days after Maroney’s interview. The USOC was aware of the allegations by at least late September 2015. Nassar informed USA Gymnastics he was retiring from his U.S. Olympic and national team duties on Sept. 10, 2015. His reason for retiring and allegations of his abuse, however, remained private and he continued to treat young athletes at Michigan State and around the state for another year.

“USA Gymnastics and the USOC did not provide a safe environment for me and my teammates to train,” Nichols said. “We were subjected to Dr. Nassar at every National Team Camp which occurred monthly at the Karolyi Ranch. His job was to care for our health and treat our injuries. Instead, he violated our innocence.

“I later found out that Michigan State University had ignored complaints against Larry Nassar from other girls going back 20 years and had investigated him for sexual assault in 2014. They never told USA Gymnastics. If they had, I might never have met Larry Nassar and I would never have been abused by him.

“I have come to the realization that my voice can have influence over the manner in which our USA athletes are treated.”

Scott M. Reid is a sports enterprise/investigative reporter for the Orange County Register. He also covers Olympic and international sports as well as the Los Angeles’ bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. His work for the Register has led to investigations by the International Olympic Committee, the U.S. Department of Education, the California Legislature, and the national governing bodies for gymnastics and swimming. Reid's 2011 reporting on wide spread sexual abuse within USA Gymnastics and the governing body's failure to effectively address it led to Don Peters, coach of the 1984 record-setting Olympic team, being banned from the sport for life. His reporting also prompted USA Gymnastics to adopt new guidelines and policies dealing with sexual abuse. Reid's 2012 and 2013 reporting on sexual abuse within USA Swimming led to the banishment of two top level coaches. Reid has won 11 Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting since 1999. He has also been honored by APSE for game writing, and enterprise, news, and beat reporting. He was an Investigative Reporters and Editors award finalist in 2002 and 2003. Prior to joining the Register in 1996, Reid worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Dallas Times Herald. He has a B.A. in the History of the Americas from the University of Washington.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.